**Download the blockchain here, updated regularly **

[hamiltino]

Latest
Size: 45GB
Format: compressed zip contains everything inside bitcoin data directory, ~60GB uncompressed.
Torrent link
Magnet link
Its basically the whole bitcoin data directory, just copy the contents into yours, delete everything inside your data directory first except bitcoin.conf if its there and wallet.dat.

Archived
Size: 47GB
Format: bootstrap single file
Magnet link


Dedicated seed node locations:
N.America
Europe

Please support the torrent by seeding it. Will attempt to update every 1-3 months.

Want a http download link? (i do not host nor did I create this ~37 GB compressed ~50GB uncompressed bootstrap.dat)
https://flo.sh/4ufiles/bitcoin-qt/bootstrap/bootstrap.dat.20151210.zip

Official booststrap torrent, not being updated, last update was AUG 2014
https://bitcoin.org/bin/block-chain/

Bootstrap.dat file, created by armory ~27GB
Torrent Link

I do not recommend using bootstrap.dat for newer clients(read here), download the latest if you are using newer clients to prevent any syncing issues, it includes all files in the bitcoin data directory

Donation address: 12C3FbDKRU1PENTot2gwVXUWb2ieHW8wNN

[Meuh6879]

Official location : https://bitcoin.org/bin/block-chain/

Don't use other place ... for this.

[unamis76]

Thanks for your work, but this is useless with current Bitcoin Core versions No need to maintain it.

[hamiltino]

Official torrent is over 1 year old, its about 20GB in size. I know people are still using it though because of the high amount of peers and seeders.

[OmegaStarScream]

Synchronization with the network is much more faster with Bitcoin latest versions now , which makes it useless to downlaod the torrent and then reindex .

[Amph]

also the total size is near 60 giga, so you must have missed a huge portion, i remember 47 giga was the case of last year

talking about this, do someone know how much is the average increase of the chain per year?

[hamiltino]

It's still the most up to date bootstrap torrent I know of. Will update it in a month or so though. Got a dedicated seedbox for it aswell. But yeah your right i just checked that the blockchain is 65gb atm, thought my bitcoind client finished synching it.

[gkv9]

also the total size is near 60 giga, so you must have missed a hige portion, i remember 47 giga was the case of last year

talking about this, do someone know how much is the average increase of the chain per year?

It's still the most up to date bootstrap torrent I know of. Will update it in a month or so though. Got a dedicated seedbox for it aswell. But yeah your right i just checked that the blockchain is 65gb atm, thought my bitcoind client finished synching it.

Thanks to both of you for updating regarding current total amounts as I have only 50 GB stored on my lappy currently, and I wasn't knowing the remaining amount...
I am on older version, what should I do???
Shall I download the newer version??? Is it safe???
Also, will this data work on it or will I need to delete the previous version with all the blocks downloaded and need to start from scratch???

[hamiltino]

So your bitcoin client has synced 50GB already?? If it has then you don't need this. Also if you ever wanted to use a bootsrap.dat file, i would probably delete everything in the bitcoin data directory except wallet.dat and bitcoin.conf(if your created it).

[dan91]

My bitcoin-d chain is 63GB but that is with indexing turned on.

[hamiltino]

Just added a second seed node. One is europe one in N.America, anyone using the torrent now should be getting faster speeds.

Thinking to also just zip the whole bitcoin data directory and use that instead, Using the bootstrap.dat leaves out the index folder and other files which I think speeds up the client sync process.

[hamiltino]

Updated.

[unamis76]

Using the bootstrap.dat leaves out the index folder and other files which I think speeds up the client sync process.

Compared to what? Core 0.11.2 without bootstrap?

[maku]

OK, So there is really a reason after reinstalling my wallet on new PC I want rather download block chain from remote source than using wallet itself for this?
I still need huge bandwidth for it, still need good internet speed, is this way with torrents etc. any faster, even 1%?

[unamis76]

OK, So there is really a reason after reinstalling my wallet on new PC I want rather download block chain from remote source than using wallet itself for this?
I still need huge bandwidth for it, still need good internet speed, is this way with torrents etc. any faster, even 1%?

Core devs say bootstraps are useless with most recent versions of Core, but OP clearly seems to disagree It would be interesting to run tests on two equal machines on the same network or on the same machine, synced twice.

I'm inclined to believe in Core devs. But they don't own the truth either.

[hamiltino]

OK, So there is really a reason after reinstalling my wallet on new PC I want rather download block chain from remote source than using wallet itself for this?
I still need huge bandwidth for it, still need good internet speed, is this way with torrents etc. any faster, even 1%?

Hey,

Your going have to see for yourself. There are many factors that could impact performance on the torrent; seed/peer ratio, ISP torrent throttling..etc. Right now though there are very few peers, if any so you should get very good speeds.

This torrent was also designed for people who were having trouble with the wallet while syncing, (database errors forcing the user to constantly reindex, this can happen from OS crashes or abrupt termination of the bitcoin process). With torrents the file will never get corrupt.

The blockchain data is also compressed by about 30%, so you download 30% less data than if your were using the client.

[hamiltino]

Just some updates on the speeds I'm getting in oz:

2-3Mib/s average I expect much higher speeds if i was pulling data closer to the seedbox locations, still very good considering my ISP does throttle torrent speeds.

Will post whether the client needs to reindex shortly after importing the blockchain data.

And if anyone wants to document the speeds they are getting and comparing it to their bitcoin-qt/d download speed in this thread, I would appreciate it.

[unent]

Thinking to also just zip the whole bitcoin data directory and use that instead, Using the bootstrap.dat leaves out the index folder and other files which I think speeds up the client sync process.

Using 7zip would make a smaller download than using zip.

If you created a portable Bitcoin qt wallet in your c drive, then 7zipped the whole folder it might be faster to sync because it would already be indexed up to the block you synced it to before 7zipping it.

You can make Bitcoin qt portable by creating a shortcut to bitcoin-qt.exe before syncing, opening the shortcut's properties, then clicking the shortcut tab, then changing the target field from

C:\bitcoin-0.10.2\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe

to this

C:\bitcoin-0.10.2\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=.

Adding the  -datadir=. makes qt put the blocks and chainstate folders in the same folder as bitcoin-qt.exe, instead of in appdata.

If you always remember to start bitcoin-qt.exe using the shortcut rather than the exe itself the wallet will remain portable and put the blockchain in the same folder as bitcoin-qt.exe.

There are file splitters you could use to break the giant 7zip file into smaller chunks. People could download each chunk individually, then recombine them using the same file splitter software you used.

[hamiltino]

Thinking to also just zip the whole bitcoin data directory and use that instead, Using the bootstrap.dat leaves out the index folder and other files which I think speeds up the client sync process.

Using 7zip would make a smaller download than using zip.

If you created a portable Bitcoin qt wallet in your c drive, then 7zipped the whole folder it might be faster to sync because it would already be indexed up to the block you synced it to before 7zipping it.

You can make Bitcoin qt portable by creating a shortcut to bitcoin-qt.exe before syncing, opening the shortcut's properties, then clicking the shortcut tab, then changing the target field from

C:\bitcoin-0.10.2\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe

to this

C:\bitcoin-0.10.2\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=.

Adding the  -datadir=. makes qt put the blocks and chainstate folders in the same folder as bitcoin-qt.exe, instead of in appdata.

If you always remember to start bitcoin-qt.exe using the shortcut rather than the exe itself the wallet will remain portable and put the blockchain in the same folder as bitcoin-qt.exe.

Ok so for my next update i will probably use 7zip if it indeed compresses to a smaller size. I actually use linux as my os, so i can't follow these instructions, do you have linux intructions? If making a portable bitcoin client prevents the need to reindex then
i will do this. I'll see if importing the bitcoin data directory from this torrent requires re-indexing first, if it does then i will try and make it portable.

I could make separate portable versions for windows, linux and mac.

[unent]

Thinking to also just zip the whole bitcoin data directory and use that instead, Using the bootstrap.dat leaves out the index folder and other files which I think speeds up the client sync process.

Using 7zip would make a smaller download than using zip.

If you created a portable Bitcoin qt wallet in your c drive, then 7zipped the whole folder it might be faster to sync because it would already be indexed up to the block you synced it to before 7zipping it.

You can make Bitcoin qt portable by creating a shortcut to bitcoin-qt.exe before syncing, opening the shortcut's properties, then clicking the shortcut tab, then changing the target field from

C:\bitcoin-0.10.2\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe

to this

C:\bitcoin-0.10.2\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=.

Adding the  -datadir=. makes qt put the blocks and chainstate folders in the same folder as bitcoin-qt.exe, instead of in appdata.

If you always remember to start bitcoin-qt.exe using the shortcut rather than the exe itself the wallet will remain portable and put the blockchain in the same folder as bitcoin-qt.exe.

Ok so for my next update i will probably use 7zip if it indeed compresses to a smaller size. I actually use linux as my os, so i can't follow these instructions, do you have linux intructions? If making a portable bitcoin client prevents the need to reindex then
i will do this. I'll see if importing the bitcoin data directory from this torrent requires re-indexing first, if it does then i will try and make it portable.

I could make separate portable versions for windows, linux and mac.

I don't use Linux so I don't have any instructions for it, but the Linux users here will probably soon tell you how to do it with Linux.

This is a good file splitter software for Windows, and there must be similar software for Linux available.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/gsplit.html

There are download links for the Linux 7zip here if you don't already have it.

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html